


it's just a bunch of words after all

by WonderTwinC



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-07
Updated: 2015-08-30
Packaged: 2018-02-20 05:30:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 23
Words: 5,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2416655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WonderTwinC/pseuds/WonderTwinC
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of ficlets based around  '30 days of writing' prompts. A little bit of everyone and everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. beginning

Starting over was never easy.

Joel had lived through so many starts and stops in his life, from the time Sarah’s mother left to fleeing the city after the initial outbreak. Boston had felt like it was his last stopping point back then, running with Tess and dealing with Bill. He was settled, for all intents and purposes.

And then Ellie came along.

And then there was Salt Lake City and Pittsburgh and Jackson.

_Jackson_ , he thought with a huff.

Ellie was happy here with Maria and Tommy and the horses. It was the safest they’d been since leaving Boston all those months ago and it was good here.

It wasn’t the easiest of beginnings to be sure, but for the first time in almost twenty years Joel felt at peace whenever he woke up in the small house he shared with Ellie.

For the first time since the outbreak it was _home_.


	2. accusations

The months bleed together for him. Working on setting up a home, a refuge, has caused time to slip through his fingers like sand. He almost doesn’t realize what month it was until one of the guys working on the dam mentions the handful of days left before September turns into October.

The sudden weight of the month sits heavily on his shoulders, tightening the muscles there until it feels hard to breath. He thinks about his brother for the first time in weeks. Tommy wonders if he’s still doing alright, if he’s still in Boston with Tess and Marlene.

He wonders if Joel’s stop accusing him yet. For leaving. For the fireflies.

He mulls over whether or not Joel has forgiven himself yet for their multitude of sins.

_For Sarah and that cold, cold September night almost fourteen years ago._

He thinks he probably hasn’t. 


	3. restless

The right side of the bed was cold.

Tess pulled her hand back slowly, opening her eyes in the near darkness of her room to stare at the tangled sheets with a hard look. She had no idea what time it was, assuming it was inevitably  in between too late and too early. A quick glance showed nothing amiss in her small sanctuary. Even the clothes that had been discarded in a half doze hours earlier were still left laying haphazardly around the bed.

She wrapped the sheets around herself before slipping out of bed and walking the small length of floor from her room to the living room. The floorboards, worn from age and water damage and good living, creaked beneath her bare feet as she padded softly into the small area that afforded them a kitchen and a table and a small couch shoved against the back wall.

It was there she found him spread out beneath their only blanket, his frame much too large to fit. Sweat beaded along his face and neck, dripping down to the top part of his chest that was bare and scarred from harsh living.

 _And harsh dreams_ , Tess thought with a soft sigh. The winter months were never easy for his soul. She could only think of a handful of memories turned to dreams that would drive Joel from the comfort of their musty full sized bed.

The remembrance that it was September and a handful of days away from his birthday narrowed a small pool of possibilities into just one.

She wondered, being slow and careful, if Tommy was thinking of his brother wherever he was. Tess contemplated whether or not  he was just as restless as Joel over the looming date.

Stretching out beside her companion on the too small sofa, rolling herself into the minuscule space between the back of the couch and his side, Tess was rather sure that she had her answer in Joel’s muffled cries.


	4. snowflake

She was five when they were traveling north. Tommy had a job for them a few states up and instead of leaving his little girl behind, Joel decided to bring her with him. The road was nothing but smooth driving with a few traffic jams for the longest and then… it was snowing. Sometimes it flurried in Texas, but it was nothing like this.

He’d probably never see anything like it again, to be honest.

That’s what he told himself as he pulled over on the side of the road, shoving Tommy awake and telling him to get their jackets out of the back.

He’d always remember how damn cold he’d been as he trudged through knee deep snow with his brother as they pulled Sarah along on the lid to one of their tubs of junk. The sight of the flush in her baby cheeks, the way her blonde hair escaped from the hood of her little pink jacket to catch falling snowflakes as she squealed in delight, hearing her delighted calls of ‘faster, Daddy faster!’…

How could he forget?


	5. haze

She couldn’t breathe.

Her heart skipped one beat and then two and then three.

Darkness engulfed her as the flashlight to her right flickered then dimmed until it died completely. Her skin felt too tight around her bones. There was a phantom ache in her chest that wouldn’t disappear no matter how much pressure she applied.

Marlene understood then that this was the feeling of complete and utter loss. The transformation from flame to ashes, from bliss to devastation. It was almost like the world was ending around here but no one else was affected. No one else suffered the same unending muddiness… the same haze seemed to swallow her whole.

The baby was crying at the top of her lungs, squalling until she was probably red in the face. Screaming incessantly into the night for a mother’s touch that she would never be able to experience.

Because the truth of the matter was that while Ellie was such a precious and wonderful gift, it would never be enough for Marlene. The tiny baby wrapped in a musty old pink blanket could not replace nor make amends for the life that she had taken upon being brought into this world.

She’d held Anna for the last time while Ellie had never experienced a first.

The startling honesty was that Marlene wasn’t sure which she regretted most.


	6. flame

Someone’s laughing.

He pauses just inside the door and listens, focusing his hearing like he’s been taught over the last handful of years. There’s a low timber to the sound, all gruff and grit and barrel like. Beneath that is a lighter laugh that’s breathless and light.

Tommy adjusts his grip on the package under his left arm as he tiptoes across the worn hardwood floor in his hunting boots, stopping just outside the only other door in the apartment. It’s cracked the tiniest bit, enough for him to peer inside when he leans just right and cocks his head the right.

They’re tangled in bed together beneath musty blue sheets. He catches a glimpse of a bare leg here and a toned arm there. Tommy raises his eyes until he finds their faces, half hidden beneath Tess’s hair that’s let down from the usual bandana. There’s a happiness in that room, in the space between them that closes and disappears as they kiss slowly.

When she pulls away from his brother, raising herself up enough that Joel’s face becomes visible, Tommy knows. He’s seen that spark in his older brother’s eyes before, a flame that dances and burns and lights up his face and shuns a few of the shadows.

It’s love.

Maybe it’s not story book Prince Charming once in a lifetime kind of love… but it’s _something_.

And in this world, in this time of disease and death and loss, something is all anyone really needs.          


	7. formal

The window seat is warm and bright as Ellie settles there with the book she’d taken from the nightstand beside the bed. There’s something comforting as she settles in with her back to the wall and her knees bent close to her chest.

As she runs her fingers over the top of the book she feels completely at peace. It’s only a momentary thing, fleeing almost the moment she realizes what that warmth in her chest is, but it was there. Ellie wonders if it’s the room she’s made herself comfortable in or the book in her hands that she opens to a random page and starts skimming.

She feels no rush to leave. No desire to run to or from anything.

It’s the first time she can remember feeling like a teenage girl since she lost Riley all those weeks ago. There had been a calm that day at the mall while they raced around with water guns and danced on top of a glass case to their favorite songs. They’d seen things, experienced things, but in those moments it didn’t matter.

They were just two kids being…  _kids_.

Ellie hasn’t felt that kind of relaxation for such a long time. It comes to her in bits and pieces as she reads page after page of a lost girl’s diary. She scans paragraph after paragraph about boys and clothes and smothering parents. There’s an entry about a school formal, whatever that means. It’s dated just a few days before the outbreak.

The door downstairs opens and she waits, because she knows.

There’s no doubt in her mind that it’s Joel, maybe Tommy, coming to whisk her back to Jackson and a life of barely surviving each day on the run.

In the seconds before she hears him open the door she panics, a tightness in her chest that almost overwhelms her because she gets it under control. She’s losing him, the one person in her life that she would trust with her back in any situation… and she’s losing him to a battle she’s not equipped to fight.

So she takes a deep breath and thumbs to another page in the diary, barely glancing Joel’s way as he enters the room.

She exhales.

_ “Is this really all they had to worry about? Boys, movies… deciding which shirt goes with what skirt?” _


	8. companion

Henry couldn’t remember a time he’d been alone. His parents had always been around until they just  _weren’t_ … but then they weren’t anything but dead so…

He had Sam. He took care of his brother the best that he could. He scavenged for food and warm clothes. Each house they stumbled upon was searched from top to bottom with Sam placed in the best position for safety Henry could find. He didn’t approach other groups they happened to meet on the road.

He wasn’t interested in strangers, because strangers could kill just as easily as the infected.

Henry wasn’t interested until a small sniffle turned into a fever and heart wrenching coughs and dry heaving. They hid in a barn on the outskirts of a rural town for days until they were found. The group wasn’t large, but it wasn’t small either.

The moment they opened the two large double doors he looked up from beside Sam, crouched on the ground near his brother’s head.

“ _Please_ -” his voice trembled like he was a frightened child and in that space between one heartbeat and the next, he was. He was a scared boy who had lost both of his parents and was terrified of losing his only tie to the living world.

Without Sam he was alone.

_ Alone was dead. _


	9. move

His hand shook as he wrote the note on a scrap piece of paper. Twice he was tempted to crumple it up and leave it unwritten, but something urged him forward until the letter was written.

_I guess you were right. Trying to leave this town will kill me. Still better than spending another day with you._

He wondered if Bill would come looking for him and find the note. It didn’t matter, though, did it? Perhaps he should’ve just stayed where he was or maybe if he’d asked Bill to make the run with him - but it was all useless now.

The bites burned and ached, a sharp pulsing pain that only grew with each hour.

The same hands that shook were steady as he tied a noose from his last length of rope. Frank fingered the knot when he was finished, tugging to make sure it was tight enough to hold his weight.

Bill had taught him how to tie rope into figure eights and a succession of knots for climbing. Since the outbreak he’d learned a lot from his partner, things he both agreed and disagreed with.

“Son of a bitch,” no one else was in the house. He was alone like he’d wanted to be and soon he would be free of Bill and his town too.

The noose scratched against his throat uncomfortably.

He closed his eyes and imagined it was nothing more than a new tie as he counted to three, wiggling around on the chair until his feet were positioned at the very edge.

The fall reminded him of driving down the open highway, the wind blowing in his face, a rush of blurred scenery… and then it’s over.


	10. silver

“Woah! Is that what I think it is?”

Joel grunts at the feel of Ellie’s fingers picking through his short hair, disturbing him from his cat nap. He’s content, sprawled out on a couch that has seen better days, and it’s almost enough to endure her touch without too much fussing. Sleep is right around the corner, so close that everything else is just background noise… then there’s a sharp tugging sensation against his scalp and Joel feels a flash of irritation at the sudden jolt of pain.

Startled, still more drowsy than awake, he blinks against the light of the room as he pulls himself up use the back of the couch. He’s more than a little disgruntled. His patience wears thin as he rubs his head. “Ellie-” his voice is rough from sleep, but the warning is there.

She’s sitting on the worn down table in front of the couch where he’s crashed, something small and thin held between forefinger and thumb. Of course she’s paying him no mind as she inspects it.

Ellie’s grinning from ear to ear, air blowing through her teeth as she tries to whistle. “Wow, I’ve never seen one of these up close before-”

"What in the hell are you talkin’ about?" he leans forward for a better look, straining his tired eyes to see whatever it is that she’s so fascinated by. It takes to good minute for him to recognize what she’s holding.

_It’s a fucking grey hair._

"Man," she laughs, almost bent over double, "just how old are you?"

Joel is pretty sure that he looks annoyed. “Now listen here-“

"I mean I guess I get it," still laughing, she twirls it between her fingers.

“Ellie-” he reaches for her arm and she jerks back, a shit eating grin on plastered on her face.

“Damn it, Ellie.” He grunts, falling back on the couch again. “Ain’t nobody ever tell you not to pull a grey hair?”

He’s exasperated and partially joking, but the reprimand of sorts catches Ellie off guard.

“What do you mean?” She’s looking at him now, curiosity lining her features.

He looks back. “It’s just an old superstition, from before. Pullin’ one grey hair makes three more grow in it’s place.”

Ellie stares at him, trying to gauge how serious he is before she shrugs. “Well, that’s okay.”

She pats his leg. “They’re more silver anyways.”


	11. prepared

He wasn’t ready for this.

No matter how many books he’d read or questions he’d asked, it would never be enough.

Raising a kid didn’t sound too complicated if you had help, but Sarah’s mom was out the door and out of their lives and he was on his own.

He wasn’t the slightest bit prepared to be a single parent, no matter how confident he’d felt before.

When faced with the reality of a sick, crying baby he had no clue what to do.

Sarah was red in the face from crying her lungs out and he was at a complete and total loss.

So he did the only thing he knew to do, pick up the phone and call Tommy.


	12. knowledge

"Know thy enemy," he stared at the deer in interest, pulling the cloth back inch by inch. It’d taken two arrows for the girl to down the animal. Most would give up after one try, too afraid of burning up ammo and too weary of travel.

To him, that meant two uncovered truths. The girl and her wounded companion were obviously hungry, perhaps starving even.

Secondly, she either had a method of travel besides walking or they were close. Close enough that carrying back a deer whole or in pieces didn’t pose obvious trouble.

The trade had been well worth it, in his eyes. It was far more than just a deer for some hard to come by medicine.

After all, David thought as he looked up at James standing in the doorway, it was an opportunity.

Why have just one meal when there was a chance to have three?


	13. denial

He'd killed a man. A living, breathing human being. Tommy felt himself tremble. He didn't regret saving his brother, how could he? Yet here he stood a few feet from Joel, feeling a heaviness he'd never experienced before. Their little paradise had gone to shit, he had blood smeared on his face and clothes... and his niece was gone.

Watching Joel, the way he cradled Sarah's body, rocking her like he had when she was just a toddler...

It didn't feel real. It didn't seem like just that morning he'd gotten up and went to work with Joel, that his brother had turned another year older.. that he'd laughed with Sarah while they picked out Joel's birthday card.

He had to make him move. Otherwise he’d stay there all night, covered in dirt and blood, cradling Sarah’s body to his chest as if nothing else mattered.

"Joel-" he cleared his throat, trying to talk around the lump of feelings caught in his chest. "Joel, we have to go."

His brother didn't move and Tommy looked around, aware of sounds slowly filtering back in. There was a not so distant groaning that was becoming louder and louder. They weren't alone.

He reached for Joel, grabbing him by his shoulder as he crouched down. The hazy feeling of before was replaced with white hot panic. “Joel, c’mon- we have to g-”

“I can’t leave her, Tommy. I just- I can’t-” Joel's voice cracked and beneath Tommy’s hand his shoulder trembled, whether with the effort of holding back tears or letting them out he wasn’t sure.

The crazy laughter, the groans... people screaming as they died...

Everything was getting close, too close.

"Sarah would want us to go, Joel. We need to go!“ He tugged on his brother's arm, feeling the muscles ripple beneath his touch. Tommy was sure as day that his brother was about to tell him to fuck off or rear back and hit him, but before Joel could do anything a light flashed down from the hill, catching both men in the face. Tommy threw himself off balance in his haste to shade his eyes, bringing his arm up even as he started to fall back.

Joel reacted in much the same way, bringing up his left arm to shield his eyes, only to stop short. The bright light caught the now cracked frame of his watch (barely even hours old) and the sight of the spider webbed glass shattered every illusion that he’d ever held until that moment.

There wasn’t time to be in denial about this world, about what he’d do from now on to protect Tommy… to protect himself.

His baby girl was dead. The life he’d woken up to that morning was gone.

It was the end of his world as he’d lived it.


	14. wind

It had scared her, when she was younger. 

The sound of it covered up other things, things that could get you hurt or killed. Like infected. Soldiers. A dangerous stranger. A friendly foe.

She’d been afraid of it for as long as she could remember. There were things she’d never enjoyed because of that fear. 

Now, crouched behind Joel as he peered around the low wall they were hiding behind, Ellie was grateful for the cover that the wind provided. It masked the sound of their breathing, the quiet whispers they exchanged while working out a plan. The breeze made her feel alive as it whipped through her ponytail and brushed against her cheeks until they were red. 

The wind had always startled her. Until she learned to hunt and fight and use the elements to her advantage, not her disadvantage. 

The wind had always terrified Ellie… and then she met Joel.


	15. order

"Move, move!" Marlene shoved her men out of the way, falling to her knees in shallow water. The girl wasn't breathing. 

Ellie wasn't breathing. 

"No - no, no, no-" she touched her soaking wet hair and then her face, hands trembling as she checked for a pulse under Ellie's jaw. 

Nothing. 

"Someone do something!" Marlene snarled the words, frantic that she was losing their only hope of a cure... her last tie to Anna slipping through her fingers. 

A younger recruit, no more than seven years Ellie's senior, stepped out of the throng of Fireflies. He handed his rifle over as he dropped down into the water beside Marlene, making sure Ellie's airway was open before he started CPR. 

Behind her, one of the first men on the scene cleared his throat. "The man that was with her was trying to revive her." 

Her jerked his head to the right and Marlene followed his gaze. Washed up at their feet was Joel, soaked from head to toe and clearly unconscious. She didn't see Tess anywhere. 

To her side there was silence and then coughing, wet and rough and weak. 

But it meant that Ellie was alive. And indeed she was, slowly opening her eyes to the take in her surroundings. 

"Joel?" She sounded lost, frightened. 

Marlene leaned into her field of vision. "You're safe, Ellie." 

Ellie's brow furrowed in recognition. "Marlene...?" 

She touched her cheek with a smile. "Welcome to the Fireflies."


	16. thanks

"Did you think I would thank you?!“ Ellie's voice shattered the quiet of their home. 

At the edge of town, they were likely to be unheard. Joel was still dressed in his work clothes, sweat soaking his back and his face. He'd barely stepped in the door before Ellie had started confronting him. 

"Now Ellie, wait just a minute-"

"You lied to me!" Her voice cracked in her anger. Her eyes were bright with rage, hands clenched at her sides. 

He held his ground just inside the door. "Ellie, listen to me-" 

"What, so you can just lie to me again?" She advanced, raising her hands. "I trusted you, Joel!" He was expecting what came next, the powerful shove that Ellie gave him. It was enough to make him stumble back, one foot out the door. 

"Was I supposed to let you die?! Let them cut into your brain for something that may or not work!" He kept his voice low, the sharp edge creeping in beneath his calm. 

"I didn't need you to save me! Not then and not now-" she shoved him again, grunting with the effort. This time his balance didn't waiver, but his resolve was. 

"Ellie-"

"Joel-" It came from over his shoulder. Glancing, he found Maria standing at the corner of the house. There was worry in her eyes, but her expression was all business. Behind her he could see Tommy, ready to intervene if necessary. 

Maria stepped forward. "The neighbors radioed in, said it sounded like trouble over here.” She looked between the two of them, raising an eyebrow. “Is everything alright?”

Ellie huffed, looking around Joel. “No, it’s not.” Her eyes met his for a moment because she looked back at Maria, a brokenness replacing the earlier ire in her face. “Joel isn’t welcome here. Not anymore.”

It hurt. A little more than he had anticipated. Maybe not as much as it should have because he’d seen it coming, but the sting was still there. The sudden loss of trust and perhaps even of love between them forging a canyon. 

Tommy cleared his throat. “We got a spare room. You’re welcome to it.”

“... yeah,” still staring at Ellie, wishing she would change her mind, knowing that she wouldn’t, Joel nodded. “Yeah, that sounds good. Thanks.”

He looked over his shoulder at his brother, ready for a reprimand from Maria (a nice, long lecture from Tommy). 

The sound of the door slamming sounded a lot like a bullet. It pierced him in about the same way, too.


	17. look

People were screaming.

She could hear the cries from inside Uncle Tommy’s jeep. People running outside the car, people  _dying_.

The fire from the farm was still bright in her mind. The overly bright taillights in front of them, a sea of stopped vehicles. Sirens. Flashing lights.

Her Dad killing the neighbor. The view of the hospital from his room. The rumble of the explosion in the air.

Her chest constricted. She was scared. Up front, her Dad and Uncle Tommy were talking in low, tight voices.

It sounded like they were scared too.


	18. summer

“You can’t catch me!” the childish voice echoed around the barn, flowing back out into the yard where work was being done. Joel was trying to focus on feeding the chickens and pigs. Sweat was pouring down his back, summer in full swing as they enjoyed the last week before school started back. He had plenty of chores to do before he was done, but Tommy was making it hard with his upbeat nature.

He was always full of smiles and laughter, kind to a damn fault. Joel could hear the horses in the barn, moving around and answering Tommy’s voice with their own. It made him smile and then the bucket of feed was forgotten at his feet as he took off, hollering at the top of his lungs. “Here I come!”

Tommy’s squeal of delight was enough to send Joel into full fledged laughter as he chased him through the barn and out the back side. The sun beat down on their young skin with a brutal force as they ran around the farm, circling out wide and coming back in toward the house. Tommy’s small face was red, beads of sweat streaking the dirt on his cheeks as he cleared the last fence and rounded toward the side of their worn down home.

Joel had fallen behind, huffing out each breath as he let his brother lead in their chase. He had just reached the fence himself when Tommy’s laughter cut short- leaving a heavy silence that was soon interrupted by a high pitched cry.

The fence, three wood slats stuck in a post, was nothing for Joel to clear. He lept the obstacle with almost no trouble, his toes clipping the top and knocking him off balance as he landed on unsteady feet, catching himself with his hands to vault forward. Tommy was crying hard as he reached the corner of the house and rushed around the front, anger hot enough to outshine the sun boiling in his veins.

Their father had a hold of Tommy by his upper arm, holding hard enough that the skin around his fingers was white instead of a heated red. He was shaking him, rattling his small six year old frame back and forth as he spoke. He couldn’t be heard over Tommy’s crying.

Joel barely remembered grabbing the bucket by the front door, the one that he’d emptied earlier. It was still slick in his grip from the water as he arched it over his head, slinging with enough force that he stumbled forward as it clipped his father in the face. It was enough that he let go of Tommy, that he stumbled back cursing and pressing a hand to his temple.

He was seeing red when he barreled into his father, ten years old and seething with rage. The next thing he remembered was his mother screaming at him to stop, her calloused fingers gripping his shoulder and jerking him back. His small hands were bloodied, his knuckles busted as he stumbled up and back and away from the unconscious form of their father.

In the background he could hear Tommy crying still, hiccuping with each breath.


	19. transformation

He felt cold, so very cold… and then his blood was boiling in his veins. His ankle ached and burned and festered, pain radiating from the marks that had barely bled. He wondered if he was being a coward, for not telling anyone. He wondered if his brother would be angry with him. If he’d done the wrong thing by keeping silent.

His memories and feelings started to burn out and then fade, becoming sharp and then nothing all at once.

His last thought was of Henry.


	20. tremble

She was beautiful, dancing in front of her on top of the glass case. The biggest dork she knew, her dance moves making her laugh until her stomach ached from it, but to date it was one of the best memories she’d had the chance of making in this world. She felt giddy from the rush of feelings, the happiness and the sorrow that forever tinged their last few encounters.

The  _love_.

Because she did, she knew. Right then in that moment, watching Ellie hop around and sing to the mixed tape she’d made for her, nothing else but love could describe what she’d felt.

What Riley had always felt.

It made her hands sweat and tremble, her heart skip a beat and then a few more. It frustrated the living hell out of her while bringing the best joy she’d experienced.

She loved her and not even the Fireflies could stop it.


	21. sunset

She was seeing red.

The anger she felt. The blood rolling down her arm. The fading light of the sun.

Riley’s tears.

Ellie wanted to lose her mind, to be poetic. They could live out their days in the mall, side by side. Forever stuck in a single moment.

But as the sunset faded into darkness, as Riley became less and less… Ellie didn’t.

She stayed. She stayed until Riley’s breathing slowed, until her words turned into groans. Until the love of her life just… wasn’t.

Ellie stayed because she had nowhere else to go, no one else to go to.

All she had was right here.


	22. mad

She felt bitter.

She felt tied in knots, her insides just as twisted as his truths. It rose like bile, suffocating and rancid. It wasn't anger or resentment. It wasn't a lot of things.

Ellie knew what it was. The small hesitation that led to a quiet answer. She remembered the foul taste left in her mouth from before. A life well away from where she was ensconced now.

She was... _exhausted._

But tomorrow - after the lies settled in her bones and her emotions caught up to her mind - she knew she’d be more than a little livid with him. More than a little disappointed, too.

She’d always thought Joel to be brutally honest, even from the start.

The truth was like a sharp blade pressing between her ribs.

They were all liars here - each and every one.

 


	23. simple

She was an early riser by habit alone - years of travel and light sleep combining to make her more or less a morning person of sorts. It was rare if she slept in past sunrise, even if she’d stayed awake late the night before. It was a trait of hers that didn’t seem inclined to disappear, even though they’d been living within the relatively safe confines of Jackson for more than a handful of years now.

The world slowly started to take shape despite her blurry vision, the wood beams over her head shifting into solid - familiar forms as the dim sunlight streamed in from the window behind her bed. Ellie stretched - her toes curling as she worked out the restlessness from her bones.

The prone figure beside her groaned, “Damn it, girl - go back to sleep.”

She laughed, her elbow catching Joel in the back as she looked over at him. “What was that? Couldn’t hear you,” she teased, her voice light despite the rasp that tinged her early morning words.

“Ellie-” the low register of his voice, the sleep that coated his words, warmed her from head to toe.

“Joel,” she replied, dropping her tone of voice to match his - and somewhat failing.

Ellie caught a glimpse of his face as he shifted beneath their blanket, attempting to cover his head as he did almost every morning that she happened to wake up before he did. The simplicity of it - the fact that they didn’t have to be up this early - that she could curl up and go back to sleep if she wanted- made her smile.

Beside her, Joel grumbled. “You’re chipper this mornin’.”

Pressing her cool hands against his warm chest, enjoying the way he shivered and muttered something that sounded like ‘shit, girl-’ beneath his breath, she smiled. “Rise and shine, old man. We’ve got the whole day ahead of us.”


End file.
